INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR TROPICAL ECOLOGY
at the Unversity of Missouri - St. Louis

NEWSLETTER

Vol. IV, No. 1 - November 1996

New ICTE Directorate

On 1 September 1996, Dr. Stephen Mulkey assumed his duties as the new Director of the ICTE. Dr. Mulkey has been associated with the Center since its inception in 1990. He has worked in the Neotropics since 1980 and is presently working on functional characteristics of tropical trees in Panama. The ICTE also has a new Associate Director: Dr. Patrick Osborne. Dr. Osborne is a tropical wetland ecologist who has previously worked in Zimbabwe, Malawi, Papua New Guinea, and most-recently, Australia.

Victoria Sork Resigns as Director

Dr. Victoria Sork has stepped aside as Director of the ICTE. During her six years in the position, Dr. Sork steered the Center from a concept to the international standing the Center currently enjoys. The initial aim of the Center was to educate the next generation of leaders who will contribute solutions to stem the current rate of tropical ecosystem degradation. Not only has Dr. Sork's direction ensured the attraction of top quality students from the US and the tropics but also, through energetic fund-raising activities, the Center has been able to provide many with scholarships and research grants. Dr. Sork's energy, enthusiasm and commitment has been a significant ingredient in the Center's development. She will be devoting more time to her research and we wish her well in her endeavors.

From the Director's Desk

As I assume my duties as Director, I am excited about the future of the ICTE and its important mission. The foundation for this future was established by Dr. Victoria Sork and members of the ecology group at UM-St. Louis. The Center currently enjoys a high international profile and attracts top quality students from the US and the Tropics and is able to provide many of these students with research grants and scholarships.

I am committed to continuing this tradition of giving top priority to training and research in the Tropics. Presently, we are one of the primary centers for training international scholars in tropical ecology and conservation. I believe that one of our most important contributions is that most of our international scholars return to their home countries to guide the wise use of natural resources in the Tropics. One important part of my vision for our future is to maintain and increase the generous support provided by the St. Louis community for scholarship and research. To this end, I will be working closely with our Development Board, which has been the most important source of support for our training activities. This generous support has provided us with critical flexibility that few other training programs enjoy. In return, I am dedicated to providing community outreach in the form of education and other opportunities for St. Louisans to participate in our programs.

Nationwide, there is a critical shortage of funding for post-doctoral research in ecology. Thus, I will be applying to national and international funding agencies for support for graduate and post-doctoral investigators. Perhaps most important for our international development, I will seek to strengthen our links to the international conservation and scientific community, including the Association for Tropical Biology and the Organization for Tropical Studies. Specifically, we will seek funding to become a sponsor of academic symposia at international meetings. To this end, the ICTE will be a vigorous participant in the upcoming Ornithological Congress to be held in St. Louis in 1998, and the International Botanical Congress to be held at the Missouri Botanical Garden in 1999. I welcome your suggestions and support as we begin this next, exciting and productive phase of our development. World Ecology Medal to be awarded to Dr. Richard Leakey

1997 World Ecology Medal Recipient will be Dr. Richard Leakey.

The famed paleo-anthropologist and conservation ecologist will attend a Gala Dinner to be held in St. Louis on 10 February 1997. Dr. Leakey, despite an earlier professed disinterest in human evolution, soon found himself caught up in seeking answers to questions that so preoccupied his parents, Louis and Mary. As a result, the Leakey family have dominated the field of paleoanthropology since the 1920s. Richard Leakey has also played a major role in African wildlife conservation. As Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Richard Leakey was instrumental in ending the rampant elephant poaching that had decimated the elephant population in Kenya throughout the 1980s. Largely through his efforts, a majority of countries endorsed a ban on trade in ivory and other elephant products and listed the African elephant as an endangered species. In 1995, Richard Leakey and Roger Lewin published The Sixth Extinction: Patterns of Life and the Future of Humankind (Doubleday), in which they predict a sixth mass species extinction is inevitable, with Homo sapiens among its victims. In addition to his scientific contributions, Dr. Leakey, has been active in promoting democracy in Kenya. The ICTE is indeed honored to have Dr. Leakey as the 1997 recipient of the World Ecology Medal.

Dr. Richard Leakey

Photograph courtesy of E-Magazine.

New Professors in Biology

The Department of Biology and the Center are delighted to welcome Dr. Robert E. Ricklefs and Dr. SusanneRenner. Dr. Ricklefs, who joins the faculty from the University of Pennsylvania, is the author of numerous publications including the textbook "Ecology." Dr. Renner is a plant systematist (Melastomataceae) and has recently arrived from the University of Mainz, Germany. The Department of

Biology is also currently undertaking a search to fill two E. Desmond Lee Family endowed chairs. These chairs will be filled by eminent scientists in the fields of plant molecular systematics and the conservation of small animal populations. These disciplines were selected to strengthen links with the Missouri Botanical Garden and the St. Louis Zoo respectively.

Forest diversity in the Interfluvial Zone of the Rio Negro and Rï¿½o Orinoco in Southwestern Venezuela

Gerardo Aymard is a master's student in the Department of Biology at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He was awarded an ICTE Tropical Research Scholarship to support the field work that he describes below. Gerardo's advisor is Dr. Paul Berry of the Missouri Botanical Garden. Gerardo can be contacted by email at: Aymard@mobot.mobot.org

My field work in the Amazonian forest of Venezuela aimed to assess forest structure and plant composition and to understand both the floristic diversity and the conservation management needs of the area. The study area is along an isolated section of road connecting the towns of Maroa and Yavita in southwestern Venezuela. The road transects a lowland "isthmus" (between the Rï¿½o Temi and Caï¿½o Pimichï¿½n basins) about 100 m above sea level which forms the watershed between two of the largest river systems in South America, the Rï¿½o Negro (part of the Amazon basin) and the Rï¿½o Orinoco. This area has a gentle topography, high rainfall (ca. 4000 mm/yr.), oligotrophic white-sand soils, black-water rivers, and a mosaic of vegetation types including white-sand savannas, riverine forests of balsa-like woods, shrublands, Amazonian caatinga forests, and tall non-flooded forests. The region is also known to harbor many endemic species of the genera Bonnetia and Arcythaea in the Theaceae, numerous genera of Rapateaceae, and several genera of mutisiod Asteraceae that are otherwise restricted to the summits of the "tepuis," or tabletop Guayanan mountains. Because of this floristic connection with the Guayana highlands and its occurrence on the Guayana Shield, a broad area centered in the upper Rï¿½o Negro basin, including the study area, has recently been proposed as a distinct floristic province (Western Guayana Province) within the Guayana Region.

My study aims to characterize quantitatively different woody vegetation types along the Maroa-Yavita road. The analyses will test several hypotheses concerning local forest types, namely, (a) there are distinct forest types along the Maroa-Yavita road that can be related to differences in soil types and microtopography, (b) each forest type can be characterized by an oligarchy of important tree species, with the magnitude of the oligarchy increasing as a function of lower soil nutrients and lower topographic position, and (c) species occurring on oxisols are more widely distributed in the Amazon basin, whereas those occurring on sandy, podsolic soils are more restricted to the upper Rï¿½o Negro region. The results will enhance our understanding of a biologically fragile and biogeographically important area that lies along the axis of projected future development in the Venezuelan Amazon.

During my four weeks of field work, I set up six tenth-hectare transects along the road between Yavita and Maroa. The sites were selected to coincide with localities where soils were sampled by French edaphologists in 1979. Each transect was divided into ten sub-units 2 m wide by 50 m long and all woody stems over 2.5 cm diameter at breast height (DBH) were sampled, often requiring one of our local field assistants from Yavita to scamper 25-35 m up a tree to collect specimens for botanical vouchers. I collected 800 specimens in these transects as well as other specimens outside the actual plots. The six one-tenth hectare transects sampled yielded 2039 individuals over 2.5 cm DBH, with a mean of 340 individuals per 1000 m2. The average number of species was 95.5 per plot, with a range of 90-105. I am now in the process of identifying specimens and analyzing transect data. However, my first surprise was finding out that the tallest individuals (30-35 m tall) and those of greatest girth (3 m DBH) belonged to a species that had never been collected in the area before. This was the "Jabua tree", Erisma japura Spruce ex Warming (Vochysiaceae). Its presence indicated a new forest type in the region (non-flooded, tall forest dominated by Erisma japura). This is remarkable since this area has been subject to several exploratory botanical studies over the past two centuries, including those by Alexander von Humboldt and Aime Bonpland in 1800, Alfred Russell Wallace in 1851, and Richard Spruce in 1853. This century, plant inventories were compiled by prominent botanists like L. Williams, B. Maguire, J. J. Wurdack and J. A. Steyermark.

In the sites where Erisma japura trees were present, other emergents included Eperua purpurea (Fabaceae), Micrandra spruceana (Euphorbiaceae), Goupia glabra (Celastraceae), and several species of Pouteria (Sapotaceae) and Protium (Burseraceae). In the lower strata, the most frequent species were Senefeldera inclinata, Sandwithia heterocalyx, Hevea guianensis (Euphorbiaceae), Heterostemon conjugatus, Aldina kunhardtiana (Caesalpiniaceae), Clathrotropis glauco-phylla (Fabaceae), and several species of Anaxagorea (Annonaceae) and Swartzia (Caesalpiniaceae). The understory was composed mostly of Diplasia karatifolia (Cyperaceae), Ischnosiphon arouma (Marantaceae), the Rubiaceae shrubs Psychotria deflexa, P. humboldtiana and Palicourea riparia, and ferns such as Adiantum tomentosum and Metaxia rostrata. Several other forest types are evident along the Yavita-Maroa road, including a lower stature caatinga forest dominated by Micrandra sprucei (Euphorbiaceae), with associated palms species of Leopoldinia piassaba, Mauritia carana and Euterpe catinga.

Moreover, Dr. P. Berry and I rediscovered an ethnobotanical use of the "Jabua tree". In years when abundant seeds were produced, local inhabitants around Yavita and Maroa villages used to gather the seeds to prepare a "Jabua cheese". To produce the cheese, the seeds were mashed in a large wooden mortar with a pestle, and the mash tightly wrapped in a package of leaves of a legume tree (Clathrotropis glaucophylla) and left to soak for a week in the river. The mashing and soaking process was repeated, and the result was a somewhat foul-smelling, cheese-like product that could be mixed with cassava or other food. It was an important protein supplement for the local population until packaged foods became readily available.

Finally, this trip was important to me for two reasons: first, it allowed me to get all the information that I need to write my master's thesis in the next four months, and second, I had the opportunity to work in the field with my advisor, Dr. P. Berry, who helped to identify the specimens and to make a vegetation map of the region.

The Effects of Vocal Behavior in Structuring Anuran Breeding Assemblages

Howard York is a master's student in the Department of Biology at UM-St. Louis and a recent recipient of an ICTE research award. His research is also supported by the CEIBA Biological Station and grants from the Sawgrass Herpetological Society and the Central Florida Herpetological Society.

Frog species interactions are expected to increase at temporary breeding sites because of the high density of heterospecific individuals. Most community studies in the recent past have not taken into account shifts in resource utilization resulting from changing species composition. Analysis of spatial, temporal, and acoustical partitioning of available breeding sites and airwaves indicate that these factors organize the community. This results in reduction of species interactions and provides order in an otherwise potentially chaotic system. However, my observations at CEIBA Biological Center and Dubulay Ranch suggested that species composition of a frog breeding assemblage directly affected the partitioning of calling sites. Calling site specificity seemed to be less rigid when many species called sympatrically and synchronously. No differences in calling site were observed when individual species densities were high as contrasted to an increase in number of species. One reason may be that some species may be flexible in their tolerance of acceptable calling sites. Still, this raises the question: do sytopically synchronically signaling males partition the airwaves thereby minimizing acoustical interference by heterospecifics? More work needs to be done on the effects of species composition and density on calling site and particularly acoustic channel partitioning in anuran breeding assemblages. Recent advances in computer and software technology present an exciting opportunity to examine the function of advertisement calls in structuring breeding assemblages.

Thus, this study is proposed to determine: (1) the effects of species composition and density on calling site and (2) whether sympatric species of anurans partition the airwaves using spectral and fine temporal variation in advertisement calls. I established four study plots in a sheep pasture adjacent to the Berbice River at the Dubulay Ranch in Guyana, South America. A second set of plots was established at the CEIBA Biological Station in Soesdyke, Guyana. In a randomized statistical design, I will employ analysis of variance (ANOVA) to examine spatial, temporal, behavioral, and spectral differences of sympatric species of anurans among plots and between sites. In the field, species composition, densities, and calling sites were ascertained using a 24 hour timer-based recording system and a nightly census. I tape-recorded 5 minute calling bouts of randomly selected known advertising males of each species present on site from 13 June-3 August 1995 and 15 May-30 July 1996. Back in the lab, spectral call features: fundamental and dominant frequencies and fine-temporal call features: note duration, notes/call group, calls/minute, and pulse rate will be analyzed using Canary 1.2. My study is significant because it should unequivocally elucidate factors that allow coexistence of species in natural anuran breeding assemblages and greatly benefit our understanding of anuran breeding assemblage and organization. Additionally, my study species are typical of rain forest anuran species, about which we know almost nothing. Therefore, valuable basic life-history and population information will be generated.

Latitudinal Differences in the Lifespans of American Robins

In a paper to appear in Ecological Monographs, Bob Ricklefs shows that adult survival rates among species in the bird genus Turdus (American robins and tropical thrushes) are much higher in the tropics, especially at high elevation, than in temperate zones. Latitudinal differences in the life spans of birds have been a topic of considerable controversy, primarily because there are few data from regional banding programs in the tropics that can be used to estimate survival rates. Ricklefs got around this problem by estimating survival from the proportions of first-year birds, compared to older individuals, in museum collections. As in some other birds, first-year Turdus thrushes can be distinguished from older birds by subtle differences in plumage. An analysis based on over 8,500 specimens from 30 populations of 19 species distributed from Alaska to Patagonia showed that annual survival rates varied from a mean of 56% in temperate North America to 68% in subtropical South America, 76% in lowland tropical areas, and 80 and 85% in montane areas of Central America and the Andes. Further analysis of the frequency of juvenile birds in collections indicated that reproductive success was inversely related to adult survival rate, but that the probability of surviving from independence to maturity was relatively constant. By relating survival rate to climate variables, Ricklefs showed that the strongest relationship was with the seasonality of temperature, suggesting that harsh winters are a major contributor to differences in the life tables of small birds. In the absence of studies of survival in local tropical populations or in regional banding programs, indirect approaches may prove to be useful in establishing general patterns of life-history variation in tropical and temperate birds.

Bird Species Diversity Within Different Systems of Coffee Plantations in Guatemala

Lorena Calvo is a master's student in the Department of Biology at UM-St. Louis. She was awarded a Mallinckrodt Fellowship to carry out the research she describes below. Lorena's advisor is Dr. John Blake.
As more natural habitats are lost in tropical countries, structurally complex agricultural habitats are increasingly important as alternatives. Agroforestry sites, such as shade coffee plantations, often support high diversities and high overall densities of birds including both migrants and residents. Different types of coffee (and other agricultural systems) can mitigate, to some extent, loss of natural habitats. It is important, therefore to determine the relative value of different systems as habitats for birds because a trend towards growing coffee in direct sunlight, as opposed to more traditional and structurally complex shade coffee plantations (where coffee plants are shaded by one to many layers of overstory trees), threaten to reduce availability of habitat.
The objectives of this study are to examine the effects different agricultural practices have on bird communities by comparing bird populations in coffee plantations that differ in amount of overstory vegetation. The diversity and abundance of resident and migrant birds in structurally different coffee plantations located in Palajunoj, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala were studied in winter (December-January) and summer (June-July). The foraging behavior of birds using the plantations was also studied. Data analysis is currently underway.

World Ecology Day

World Ecology Day is celebrated annually on the UM-St. Louis campus with a multidisciplinary public symposium on an environmental topic of biological, political, and cultural concern. On October 25, the ICTE co-sponsored the seventh World Ecology Day. This year's theme was: "Ecological Disruption: Plagues and Pests in a World Without Borders." Over 400 students from some fifteen St. Louis High Schools attended the stimulating talks. Dr. Terry L. Yates from the Department of Biology and Museum of Southwestern Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque lectured on "How global climate change may have caused an ancient mouse virus to become a fatal human disease." Dr. Orley "Chip" Taylor from the Division of Biological Sciences, University of Kansas, presented a paper entitled: "African bees in the Americas: How did they get here, what is their future, and why are they called 'killer bees'." Robin Marantz Henig was the Keynote Speaker. Ms. Marantz won the 1994 Author of the Year Award from the American Society of Journalists and Authors for her book entitled "A dancing matrix: How science confronts emerging viruses." Her World Ecology Day presentation was entitled: "A dancing matrix: Emerging viruses in Ebola, AIDS, and other human epidemics." The ICTE acknowledges the Missouri Department of Conservation and Mallinckrodt Chemical, Inc. for their continuing financial support of this event. The Pierre Laclede Honors College and Beta Beta Beta (Biology Society) provided an opportunity for graduate students to meet the three speakers on the eve of World Ecology Day.

Freund Foundation Lectures

The Freund Foundation Visiting Scholar Lecture Series was established to recognize outstanding research in ecology, evolution, systematics, and conservation biology. Through the Harry and Flora D. Freund Foundation Seminar Series, the Center, has, this year, been able to sponsor visits by Dr. Peter Price, Dr. Jamie Cavelier, and Dr. May Berenbaum.

Dr. Peter Price is Regents' Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Northern Arizona University. He has published extensively in the field of insect-plant interactions and has authored a number of standard texts including "Insect Ecology" and "Biological Evolution." He graduated from the University College of North Wales (Bangor) and after undertaking a master's in forest entomology at the University of New Brunswick, he completed his Ph.D. at Cornell University. Dr. Price delivered a thought-provoking lecture: "Latitudinal gradients in species diversity: dogma and hypothesis, but what is the pattern and where is the theory?"

Dr. Jamie Cavelier is an authority on basic plant ecology and ecophysiology of tropical lowland and montane rain forests of Colombia, Venezuela, and Panama. During the last few years, he has carried out applied research on the restoration of tropical forests on abandoned pastures, and on the degradation of dry deciduous forest from overgrazing and frequent burning. His current research focuses on the environmental effects of illegal plantations of coca and opium in lowland and montane rain forests in Colombia. Dr. Cavelier's Freund Lecture was entitled: "Restoration of montane forests on abandoned pastures." Dr. Cavelier also presented the following seminar sponsored by the ICTE and the Center for International Studies: "Tropical deforestation and the production of illegal drugs."

Dr. May Berenbaum is scheduled to present the third in this series of Freund Lectures on 4 December. Her title is: "Cytochrome P450s in plant/insect interactions: inductions and deductions." Dr. Berenbaum will also give a talk: "Plant-insect interactions: Does defense cost an arm and a leg or just a few fingers?"
The Freund Foundation Lecture Series provide opportunities for ICTE Faculty and Graduates to interact with outstanding visiting scholars and provides intellectual excitement to our program.

Graduate Activities

During the past year the ICTE has provided support to six Latin American students in the Biology graduate program and funded the research of twelve graduate students working in tropical countries. Seven students associated with the Center have received support through the General Services Foundation for internships in conservation and tropical biology. Two doctoral students received awards from the Compton Foundation Fellowship Program in Environment and Sustainable Development. Seven graduate degrees were awarded during the last academic term by the Department of Biology at UM-St. Louis.
Sandra Arango has recently completed her internship for the Certificate in Tropical Ecology and Conservation Biology. Sandra, with funds from the ICTE, spent a month working with the Nature Conservancy in Washington D.C. and surveyed the threats to, and opportunities for, conservation in the Choco region of Columbia.
During the summer, Seth Isenberg spent two months in Costa Rica attending an OTS course: Tropical Biology: An Ecological Approach (OTS 96-3).

Graduate Certificate Program

The Graduate Certificate in Tropical Biology and Conservation was established in 1995. Since then, five students have been awarded certificates, and nine students are currently enrolled in the program. The program is multidisciplinary, integrating theoretical and applied topics associated with tropical biology and conservation. A key component of the program is the internship opportunity, which provides students with practical experience in conservation issues. Since summer 1992, when the internship program started, 25 graduate students have participated in conservation internships. Internships have been conducted locally, in St. Louis, nationally, in New York and Washington D.C., and internationally, in Peru, Costa Rica, Ecuador, and Germany with a variety of non-governmental conservation groups (e.g. World Wildlife Fund), multinational institutions (e.g. The World Bank), federal agencies (e.g. Smithsonian Institution), and private organizations (e.g. Costa Rica's National Institute of Biodiversity). The Graduate Certificate is administered by the Department of Biology at UM-St. Louis.

Conferences

The ICTE and the Department of Biology were well represented at the 1996 Annual combined meeting of the Ecological Society of America, American Society of Naturalists, Association of Tropical Biology, Society for Conservation Biology and the International Society for Ecological Modeling which was held in Providence, Rhode Island from 10-14 August 1996. The following papers were presented: Victoria Sork and Anthony Koop: Paradoxical relationships between heterozygozity and tree size in two species of woody plants on formerly clear cut forests of the Missouri Ozark Forest Ecosystem Project (MOFEP). Carol Kelly: Causes and consequences of seed mass variation in Liatris cylindracea, a perennial herb. Robert Marquis: Spatio-temporal variation in the herbivore community associated with Quercus alba and Q. velutina in southeastern Missouri. Stephen Mulkey, Kaoru Kitajima and Joseph Wright: The limits to functional convergence: Character syndromes in the canopies of tropical forest trees. Kaoru Kitajima, Stephen Mulkey and Joseph Wright: Seasonal phenotypic differentiations in the canopy of a tropical dry forest: higher photosynthetic capacity of pre-dry season leaves than in early-wet season leaves. Josian Lecorf, Robert Marquis and James Whitfield: Effects of parasitoids on the herbivore community associated with Quercus alba and Q. velutina in southeastern Missouri. Diego Pï¿½rez-Salicrup: Impact of liana removal on canopy cover, water availability, and tree seedling growth and survival in a lowland forest in Bolivia. Ana Cristina Villegas: Variation in clonal life history and seedling recruitment in the understory bromeliad, Aechmea magdalenae (Poster). Sandra Arango: Workshop in ecology and natural resource management: An introduction to systems analysis and simulation.

Ornithologists to Gather In St. Louis

Faculty and graduate students from the ICTE and Department of Biology, together with the St. Louis Zoo, Missouri Botanical Garden, St. Louis Audubon Society, Webster Groves Nature Study Society, World Bird Sanctuary, Washington University, and St. Louis University will serve as the host for the 1998 JOINT NORTH AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGICAL MEETING from 6-12 April 1998 in St. Louis. This will be the largest ever gathering of ornithologists in North America including the following professional societies: the American Ornithologists' Union, the Association of Field Ornithologists, the Colonial Waterbird Society, the Cooper Ornithological Society, the Raptor Research Foundation, and the Wilson Ornithological Society. Anyone wanting further information about the meeting should contact Bette Loiselle (tel. 314-516-6224; bird_stl@umsl.edu) or check ICTE's home page for a link to meeting information (http://ecology.umsl.edu/bird98).

UM-St. Louis and Washington University hold research retreat

On Saturday, November 9, biology faculty, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and Washington University held their second annual Joint Research Retreat at the Missouri Botanical Garden. A total of eighteen talks were given on topics ranging from the effects of forest fragmentation on bird recruitment processes in the Central Andes of Columbia to the evolutionary role of hybridization between Anubis and Hamadrias baboons. Much of the work presented focused on tropical issues, reflecting at least one common theme for this diverse group of researchers. This annual joint retreat, the co-sponsorship of visiting speakers, and the monthly UM-St. Louis/Wash. U. journal club have all contributed to enhance cooperation and positive interaction between the biology research groups at these two institutions.

Tree Regeneration Ecology Course Delivered in Peru

Eric Wiener, a Ph.D. candidate in our program, taught a one-week field course at his dissertation field site in the Peruvian Amazon for university students from the region. Organized and financed by the National University of the Peruvian Amazon (UNAP), "La ecologia de la regeneracion natural de arboles tropicales" ("Tree regeneration ecology in tropical rain forests") was attended by twenty upper-level undergraduate and graduate students from UNAP's Forest Engineering, Biology, and Ecology and Development Departments. The course blended reviews of ecological theory and experimentation with practical field experience. Students designed and implemented two-day field studies on topics such as the impacts of seed preying insects and rodents on tree seedling establishment, tree species compositional shifts during secondary forest succession, spatial dispersion of diverse forest tree species, and tree regeneration niche diversity among tropical rain forest tree species. For many of the students, the experience was their first time using the scientific method to understand ecological phenomena, while more experienced students took the opportunity to sharpen their skills in designing field experiments that effectively address important research questions. After receiving rave reviews from the course participants, UNAP administrators have asked Wiener to teach the course again next year.

From the Editor

I would like to thank all who contributed to this newsletter. Send any future ideas and contributions to the editor, Patrick L. Osborne, Department of Biology, UM-St. Louis, 8001 Natural Bridge Road, St. Louis, MO 63121 (E-mail: posborne@joline.umsl.edu; FAX: 314-516-6233). If you do not wish to continue receiving this newsletter, please contact the ICTE office: 314-516-5219. For further information on the ICTE and its activities you can visit our web page: http://ecology.umsl.edu/